It is preferable to be able to use low bit-rate audio encoding in order to efficiently utilize and maximize usage of network transmission capacity in communication systems or storage capacity in storage systems. However, it is also preferable to encode audio such that the perceived quality of the audio to a listener is improved.
Currently, the perceived quality of audio encoded at low bit-rates may be less than desirable for some applications. The perceived degradation of audio quality can be more pronounced in the lower end of the audio frequency range (around 0-7 kHz). This can be especially true when processing complex input signals, such as music.
Hence, there is a need for devices and methods to provide high-quality audio encoding at low-bit rates. By extension, there is also a need for improved coding of any data that may not require perfect reconstruction such as, for example, in context of image or video encoding.